A Paw-some Addition!
PHOTO COURTESY OF CARLOS MERADI CUÉLLAR: Sage and River, the therapy dogs at Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center.
April 6, 2022
The Wellness Center is Millikan’s latest addition to improve the school. It’s a good idea and place to relax, however I feel as if there may be something that could make it better–therapy dogs! Therapy dogs have been proven to help people of all ages. According to therapydogs.com, therapy dogs can “...help a person control daily anxiety, regulate emotional arousals, and improve mood.”
Around 20 students per day visit the Wellness Center, according to Ms. Ursetti, Millikan’s social worker, who helps at the Wellness Center. She says stress for students comes from “overarching problems. Some of it’s school, a bit of home, and a bit of social. Some of these are bigger for some students than others.”
Therapy dogs are trained to help people with stress or depression, amongst other mental illnesses. Medical News Today writes that therapy dogs help by “…calming a person down during an anxiety attack through distraction, such as licking their face or providing a paw…” and “providing deep pressure therapy to soothe their owner…” Dogs in general are known to bring good company to their owners by providing love and friendship. Sometimes, just a little love and comfort, like a dog, can help students throughout the school day.
Mr. Erik Shweninger, principal of Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center, which is an education center for kids, has worked with therapy dogs. Shweninger says that, “…dogs are the best therapist that nature can give us, because they have a real connection with us. A lot of the time, kids come into my office and they don’t want to talk to a teacher, so the best solution is to let them spend time with the dogs.” His center currently has two dogs, Sage and River, who are both labradors. He says when kids get upset, the most effective way for them to calm down is to let them interact with Sage and River.
As far as bringing therapy dogs to the Wellness Center, Ms. Ursetti says, “I think it’s a great idea.” She adds, “I think they’re helpful, when I was an undergrad they had them, and people loved them.” However, there would be a process, since at the moment, non-service animals are not allowed on campus. Service dogs are currently allowed, but we should also allow therapy dogs, which can be a form of service. They would be working for the school, and the process would have to follow all rules, and maybe make some new ones, but it’s possible. The outcome would overall help the school and its students.
Until we (hopefully) get therapy dogs, here are some ways to cope with stress: Ms. Ursetti recommends taking breaks and self care. This could be yoga, meditation, coloring, sudoku or word searches. Whatever works for you! Talk to an adult you trust; this can be a teacher, parents or counselors. These coping methods can help with stress and depression. And, of course, you can always visit the Wellness Center. Ms. Ursetti is always there to help, and it’s a good place to relax and destress.
Genevieve Algie • May 2, 2022 at 12:10 pm
I think having a dog in the wellness center is a good idea but what about students with alergys? if we did have a dog in the wellness center i think that it should only be on serten days of the week so students that do have alergys can still use the wellness center. or have a dog that has hair and not fur. a dog is a really nice idea but if it makes it more dificult for people to use the wellness center, then maybe its not worth it
Genevieve 9th grade
Riley Sawyer • Apr 28, 2022 at 10:02 am
In issue 5/2022 (published April 6, 2022), Isabella Towne wrote an article titled “A Paw-some Addition”. The article talks about our school’s wellness center adding a support dog to the family. A therapy dog could help call me a person down during an anxiety attack through distractions such as licking their face or providing a paw. I think it’s a great idea because many kids at Millikan struggle with anxiety and allowing a dog to be on campus would also lift their spirits and allow them to feel comfortable at school. from my understanding, I see it might take some time to allow this to happen, but I think by next school year we could have a service dog on campus. One question I do have is where it would live. Since the dog would be on campus for the school day, who would bring it home at night? Would it have to be the leader of the wellness center or someone in the office? besides all this complication that would need to be worked through if this plan happens, I support allowing therapy dogs on campus and think it’s an amazing idea. thank you for introducing me to this topic.
Dana • Apr 13, 2022 at 12:11 pm
In Issue 6/2022 (published April 6, 2022), Isabella Towne wrote an article titled, “A Paw-some Addition” which first off is what I believe is a great title. In this article it mentions how it would be a great addition to the Wellness Center if they were to add dogs specifically “therapy dogs.” Prior to the article, many people deal with different types of things every single day and the catchphrase “A dog is a person’s best friend” is the most truthful thing I have ever heard. Dogs are one of the most reliable animals when it comes to people and rather than telling someone how they are feeling they would much rather choose the dog. I really love how you chose to bring this up and at least try to do something about it, after all it’s a win win for everyone. Another good thing about the addition of therapy dogs would be that maybe more people who are too afraid to talk to a person would bring them to approach the wellness center and get comfort from the therapy dogs and basically just stay calm and be able to relax. Overall, this article brought up many good points and was well thought out. I hope the school pushes this idea through, thank you for introducing this article which might bring an amazing thing alive.
Bailey Morris • Apr 13, 2022 at 12:07 pm
In issue 6/2022 (published Apr 6, 2022) Isabella Towne, wrote an amazing and adorable article on how therapy dogs should be considered for the Wellness Center. I personally am a HUGE dog lover and I have experience in using dogs to calm down. My dogs are able to tell when I am under stress and they know exactly what to do to help me. However I do have a few questions as to how we would do this. First is that dog fur is a common allergy that children have. By adding dogs to the wellness center there may be some kids that could not come because of the dogs. And second, we would need a way to either keep them at the school overnight or have someone take them home. So would we have a trainer for these dogs come once a week or how often would we do this? The other problem is the mess. Dogs tend to need to “release” and they usually do this multiple times a day. This can be very time consuming and would need a lot of attention so that they do not go inside of the room. With these things in mind I still think that this would be a great idea for the Wellness center. Thank you so much for bringing up this idea!
Mathew • Apr 13, 2022 at 10:44 am
Dear Isabella Towne,
In Issue 3/2022 (published March 1, 2022) Isabella Towne wrote an article titled, “A Paw-some Addition” In this article, Isabella talks about how Millikan should provide therapy dogs at the wellness center for students. I think this is a wonderful idea due to the fact that there is a high number of students that attend the wellness center with stress and even having colleges around California providing therapy dogs on their campuses. Therapy dogs help with stress or depression along with other mental illnesses. If this was brought to Millikan, this would decrease the stress and the depression of other students who might be dealing with issues in their daily life. People could come in whenever they are dealing with something and just have comfort with the dogs. I would definitely go in to calm my stress when school becomes too much. “Dogs in general are known to bring good company to their owners by providing love and friendship. Sometimes, just a little love and comfort, like a dog, can help students throughout the school day.” I agree because whenever I’m dealing with something, I always go to my dog and brings me so much comfort and helps me when i’m going through it and by having therapy dogs at Millikan can really help others heal and cope with their problems they might be going through it.
Jacklyn Frost • Apr 13, 2022 at 10:42 am
In Issue 6/2022 (published April 6, 2022), Isabella Towne wrote an article addressing how therapy dogs can be used in the Wellness Center to help kids. This article talks about how therapy dogs in the Wellness Center can help students feel better, since they are used in many other places to help comfort patients. I agree that dogs would be a good addition to the center since most people turn to their pets as a source of comfort. Personally, my dog at home is my own companion and when I don’t want to talk to people, I use him to make me feel better. Dogs also help with anxiety attacks and other medical problems to help calm someone down. This can be helpful since some kids need assistance they may not be able to get at home. I have a few questions about how this will work. Will dogs come every day or certain days out of the week? Who will provide therapy dogs? Do you think this will bring more students to the Wellness Center?
Thank you for taking this into consideration the wellness of other students and more ways to make school a comfortable and safer place for us to express our feelings!
Salma Mancilla • Apr 12, 2022 at 10:51 pm
In Issue 6/2022 (published April 6, 2022), Isabella Towne wrote an article titled “A Paw-some Addition!” The article has a smooth introduction to the topic with a play on words included in the title which grasped my attention. I agree with the writer that getting therapy dogs as an addition to the wellness center would be a really cool concept. It’s important that students are able to feel comfortable and enjoy what was designed for that reason and adding therapy dogs seems like something often seen but never really experienced. Although the point of this article was to encourage the idea of introducing therapy dogs to the wellness center, it’s important to have the perspective of the opposite mindset. This is why the input given from Ms. Ursetti is really beneficial to the topic. Ursetti says she is also fond of the idea while also acknowledging it would be a rather lengthy process to be able to actually bring this possibility to reality. Since there are existing and in place restrictions from school and overall interferences that may occur because of possible service dogs already on campus that can’t be distracted. This article did a great job at informing about the benefits of bringing therapy dogs into the wellness center while also getting the opinions of others who acknowledged the possible downfalls to it. I believe therapy dogs would be a great addition to the wellness center and could really help out a lot of people. Thank you for informing about the benefits of therapy dogs and the idea of possibly integrating them into our own school.
Aarian Rogers • Apr 12, 2022 at 10:20 am
In issue 6/2022 (published on April 6, 2022), Isabella Towne wrote an article titled, “A Paw-some Addition” The pun in the title refers to the proposal of therapy dogs Towne makes in the article. She suggests Millikan should add therapy dogs to the wellness center. I think this is an amazing idea. In fact, some California colleges, such as CSUCI, have therapy dogs on campus for the students. Therapy dogs can be very beneficial for mental health. I enjoyed Townes quotes alongside the addition of links to learn more about how it would help. However, I wonder how we could combat the issue of allergies. If a dog is in the wellness center, it might restrict those allergic to dogs from going to the wellness center in times of need. We would also need a designated person to house and care for the animal, as well as bring it to school almost everyday. Additionally, well trained animals -especially ones who won’t distract service dogs we already have on campus- are very costly. On the bright side, we can learn from other institutions which already have therapy animals. Towne also gives suggestions on how to cope with stress until we can hopefully get therapy dogs. I think this addition to the article is very helpful. Overall, the article is very well written and informative. I believe Towne did a great job proposing the addition of therapy dogs.
Zoe-Jane Cardwell • Apr 11, 2022 at 2:21 pm
In issue 6/2022 (published April 6, 2022), Isabella Towne wrote an article titled “A Paw-some Addition!” The article talks about how therapy dogs are good for people and could be to our own wellness center. It talks about how another school introduced therapy dogs to their school and saw some improvement. I believe that we should get therapy dogs in our wellness center because I think a lot more people would go to just relax because as of now not as many people are interested in going to the wellness center. If we had animals in interact with it would draw more people in to just take a minute to calm down and play with some dogs. The article does provide evidence on how therapy dogs are good for people’s health and bring up people’s mood and also help relax them. I don’t know about you but getting to go and play and relax with a dog during school sounds like a dream. I hope that we end up getting therapy dogs. Thank you for making an article about them. 🙂